


Seems So Long Ago, Nik

by orpikjam44



Series: Come Home [3]
Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Airports, Alternate Universe - Hockey, Feelings, Flying, Gay, Gay Male Character, Hockey, M/M, Michigan, Mixed feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-08
Updated: 2014-01-08
Packaged: 2018-01-08 00:06:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1125984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orpikjam44/pseuds/orpikjam44
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Brad is more excited to be back in Michigan than he thought he would be, but he's not sure what to do about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seems So Long Ago, Nik

**Author's Note:**

  * For [annabeth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/annabeth/gifts).



> Title is a play on a Leonard Cohen song.
> 
> Brad, it's time to figure yourself out before you dig yourself into a ditch you can't get yourself out of. Or maybe it's one you don't WANT to get out of...

_CHAPTER THREE_

_“Sorry about the delay, everyone, we should be touching down in Detroit at about 10:25...”_

The announcement from the captain spurs a hum of disapproval and concern about connections, questions of gate changes and a smile on Brad’s face.

Nik will be there. He’s probably already there, and there’s nothing Brad can do about it.

The plane touches down and buzz and murmur of the concerned 25-minute-delayed flyers grows in volume to adjust to the roar of the engines and rumble of wheels on tarmac. Brad shuts his book, pulling out his phone and taking it out of airplane mode.

One... two... three...

Eleven text messages and a voicemail buzzed in. During a flight from San Jose to Detroit.

He smiles, paging through them. Ten from Nik, one from Pavelski. He clicks it first, as it’s the only one of its kind.

_Why are you leaving me._

Brad chuckles, typing back, _Admit you love me, Pavs. Admit it._ , before digging into the Nik texts.

_Brad i love you be safe_

_Don’t miss your flight are you up_

_Brad i saw your flight left late but i’ll still but i’ll still be there at nine_

_I miss you_

_I’m here_

_It’s cold out I hope you brought warm clothes if not you can borrow mine_

_They won’t fit you but that’s okay don’t worry about it_

_I’m still here_

_You landed_

Ten minutes later, Brad is pulling on his gloves and walking towards the doors out of the airport. The gloves are the only thing he still has from his time spent on the Wings. There really hadn’t been much of a need for new gloves living in California, so the Michigan ones had survived and now had made the trip back.

He can only hope that they’re not the one thing Nik will have an intense sentimental connection to and starts blubbering over them.

Could happen.

It doesn’t take him long to spot the black Porsche Cayenne idling on the sidewalk by the doors, engine purring softly, its driver slumped in his seat, nose inches away from his phone screen.

The feeling that hits Brad as he walks through the door is a mix of wanting to run, screaming to the car and wanting to lay down on the sidewalk and start crying. Neither were reactions he was expecting, which startled him.

Then it hits him. It’s Nik. And he’s back in Michigan. It’s _Nik!_ His face splits into a grin and he strides towards the luxury SUV, nearly tripping over his feet before he reaches the window, rapping loudly on it with his knuckles. “Hey, idiot! I’ve been waiting for you for hours!”

Nik drops his phone, an explosion of shock on his face, his sapphire blue popping eyes wide open. He freezes, chest rising and falling, then he’s grinning to. “STUIE!! Get in!”

Brad tosses his small duffel bag into the back as he swings into the passenger seat. “Jeez Nik, way to keep me waiting, I was--” He’s cut off by a mouthful of Nik arm as his old teammate pulls him into a tight hug, his face pressed firmly into Brad’s neck.

He starts nuzzling. “Stuie, how do you smell so good and feel so good and-- Am I crying? I’m not going to stop hugging you because I think I’m crying.”

His arms are warm and his hair is soft against Brad’s cheek, the smell of... Old Spice? Maybe. Whatever it is, it’s filling his nostrils, and it smells like Nik, and it is good. He smiles, slipping his arms around Nik and squeezing tight.

Brad can feel the strong muscles in Nik’s sides and back flexing under his hug. He forgot how good it felt to hold the younger man to him, tight and intimate. “People are gonna see us, Bud.”

“I don’t care,” Nik says, voice muffled in Brad’s neck. But he draws back anyway, and when he does Brad can see the sparkle of tears in his eyes. He’s fixed up to perfection, except for the ever-present neck beard Brad always thought was quite adorable. It’s still adorable. Maybe even more so now, or it could just be because he hasn’t seen his friend in person since earlier in the season.

“How’s the noggin?” Brad asks as they drive. The last time he’d seen him was when Nik was still out with his concussion.

Nik makes a face. “I’m fine. I was fine that night. I told you that.”

“You’re a special one, buddy.”

The drive back to Nik’s house isn’t long, but the memories that flood back into Brad’s mind as they drive almost bring him to tears. He wants to grab ahold of Nik and cling to him as they fly down the freeway, and he knows Nik would like it, too.

He can’t do it, though, he can’t bring himself to do something like that. He’s there for the day. He’s there as a friend. They had decided it was over. Eventually.

So if it was over, why did his body ache to touch Nik? Not necessarily in an intimate, sexual way, no. Just... contact. Anything. To rub his shoulder, pat his knee, brush his hair back behind his ear...

...Okay, intimately does sound pretty nice...

And, as he’s been wondering even more since they started their journey back from the airport, why was it that when he held his wife at night, he always found himself imagining she was Nik, just as he was falling asleep? Every night, without fail, as he pressed his face into her hair, he was feeling Nik’s soft locks against his face, he was sliding his hands over Nik’s warm belly and pulling Nik’s strong body against his own.

The trees speed by, piled snow on the side of the road. He remembers these trees, these battered exit signs, these cracks flying by under the tires of Nik’s Porsche. He’d studied them all when he lived out here, but the memories that are most strongly attached to these sights are the drives back to Nik’s place.

Hadn’t they held hands the entire way back once? They had. Soon after Brad had drunkenly asked Nik to be his boyfriend between bottles of wine and Marlon Brando movies. It had probably been their next trip after that.

He brushes his hair back, peeking at Nik out of the corner of his eye. He’s concentrating on the road, the Rolling Stones playing on low volume out of the radio, the early morning December sun shining bright through the windows and splashing lightly over his body.

Brad blows a sigh out through his nostrils, slouching down an inch in his seat and fixating his eyes on the road ahead. What is he even doing out here? Life has something in store for him and there is going to be nothing he can do about it.


End file.
